April A to Z Challenge: B

It was a relief to find it. Amanda had thought she might have to swim. She wouldn’t have minded a swim to the island, under better circumstances. It would make for a good story, when — or if — she could ever talk about what was going on. But today, with the mist hanging thickly and a chill in the air, a wet scramble across the narrow channel separating the mainland from the tiny island was mightily unappealing.

Staying on firm ground but leaning as far over the edge as she dared, she gripped the slender rope handrails with both hands and shook it vigorously. The rope bridge rattled but held. Though primitive in design, it looked strong. Amanda stepped onto the first rung, and bounced up and down in one final test of this mysterious bridge. It held firm. There was no point in going slowly, Amanda thought, as she took a deep breath and ran, awkwardly jerking to meet the bouncing treads, to the middle of the bridge. There she paused, wanting to feel the wind and the sway of the bridge. The cool mist left tiny droplets on her curly hair. She could hear the crashing of the waves on the rocks far below. She let go of the hand rails, bending her knees to keep her balance on the slender bouncing board. With mist now hiding both ends of the bridge, and suspended high above the moving sea, she felt more free than she had ever felt in her life.

I've challenged myself to create a writing prompt and write a short response to it each day of April as part of the A to Z blogging challenge. Read more about the A to Z blogging challenge here. If you feel inspired by the prompt today, feel free to post your own short response in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Thank you! Yes, I am working on a larger story and these prompts have been a fun way for me to explore little mini scenes with some of my secondary characters. I'm not sure yet whether any of these little blurbs will make it into the story. It's just for fun and learning for now.